


ascension

by krasati



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! - All Media Types, Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Canon-Typical Warnings, M/M, Post-Canon, existential crises spiralling out of control (again), plotty!, slight butchering of the world mechanics to add in bits from the other yugioh series, this isn't romance centric but their relationship is important
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-13
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25875568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/krasati/pseuds/krasati
Summary: So maybe the universe hated the abomination that was Ai's man-made resurrective immortality. But Ai had always been talented at running away.
Relationships: Ai | Ignis & Fujiki Yuusaku, Ai | Ignis/Fujiki Yuusaku
Comments: 12
Kudos: 25





	1. through me is the way to the lost below

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ai's getting used to the fact that he might actually be immortal, though he's not very happy about it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter references some themes from the anime (suicidal ideation, self-destructive tendencies) so it is pretty morbid even if Ai isn't exactly human
> 
> the chapter titles are dante's inferno quotes!

To call the virtual reality another dimension of the world wasn’t too far a stretch, though if dimensional travel was possible, it probably wouldn’t be anything like the sheer accessibility of Link VRAINS. The present software of the SOL Tech duel disks enabled easy access into Link VRAINS, and the other cities followed Den City in creating their own virtual realms and fancy gadgetry - all of which linked together by the connection portals located in Link VRAINS, now a central station for virtual reality (and what people didn’t know, was a result of an accidental experiment in remodelling the remnants of the Tower of Hanoi by SOL Tech, and begrudgingly, silently approved by the Knights of Hanoi).

Behind the momentous growth rate of Link VRAINS and the rest of the virtual world was the recycling of unused data, made up of wastage from the sewages under Link VRAINS, and more crucially, leftovers from the decimated Cyberse World and abandoned Ignis programming. Subsequent company-backed programmers, after rumours of dangerous AIs wreaking havoc, had the better sense to prioritise other projects instead of taking another futile stab at breaking the highest level of artificial intelligence known to man - making functioning, non-troublemaking programmes that could autogenerate landscapes and constructions by reprocessing scrap data (which, still involved a pretty high level artificial intelligence, but it was Blood Shepherd-approved safe). The virtual realm became a free for all sandbox for the amateurs and professionals, the legally employed and cyber criminals. Link VRAINS’ Central Station would automatically create wormholes to every newly created virtual realm - though to realise which entrance led to where was a matter of trial and error, and soon SOL quickly imposed restrictions to unverified portals.

Humans would love to control the virtual world - the previous executives of SOL Tech clearly did - but as with the real world, no one could truly manage the vast space of the virtual reality. They could barely manage Link VRAINS, which in the grand scheme of things, was akin to a drop of water in the ocean. Like the universe itself, the virtual world was ever growing, its potential limitless. No matter how advanced the capabilities of modern technology, humans were limited by their resources and ability. With every million surveillance spyware, there were another million blind spots.

And in one of the recesses of such blind spots, far from the reach of watchful eyes, from Link VRAINS, from any human, living contact, Ai was reborn.

Rebirth was inherently a very human, theological concept. Ai wasn’t and shouldn’t be subscribing to the grandiose of it in any way - as data, there were always explanations, no matter how complex. But comparisons could be made: Ai died, in the full tragic glory, and bits and pieces of himself scattered across the infinite universe; a complete decomposition - Ai had made sure of it - to bytes of data so small it was negligible to every possible human-made, Ignis-made scans; so splintered that piecing together all the bits would be an impossible task when Ai had been deconstructed to something that was no longer recognisable as uniquely Ai; and still the universe delivered yet another fuck you to Ai’s concept of digital death, where somehow enough pieces had gathered to kickstart his regeneration programme, a primal version of auto-backup that he didn’t realise had existed within himself.

Thus, Ai was now a skeletal form of himself, immobilised by the fact that mobility had yet to be recovered and installed into him. The universe didn’t even do him a favour of wiping his memories. Here he was, a drifting mess of data, blending nicely with the rest of the debris in this dead space, watching memories of his life and the thousands he lived in the simulations he had put himself through over and over again as his regenerative programme worked to pull himself together.

Maybe, karma was real.

So when Ai finally had the ability to take actions beyond his basal self-preservation instincts, he recreated the virus that the Knights of Hanoi had used on Windy on pure memory and set it off within himself, welcoming the sheer joy of disappearing into nothing, free from the agony of his thoughts, the miserable weight of memories, and that painful raging thing within his core - ah, what did they call it again?

(Instincts. Emotions. Free will. A soul.)

Ai’s last thoughts had gone something like, ‘I should have done this instead of the hassle of the previous plan’ and ‘dying alone sucks’ and, the last one that ached his dissolving data heart, ‘Yusaku’.

Those should have been his last thoughts. When his mind reawakened to the buzz of the auto-regeneration system churning within himself, Ai slowly came to terms with sinking horror and resignation, that he might not be able to die after all.

(“A god,” Bohman’s voice living rent-free in his mind was deep and awe-inspiring, and underlying every word was hysteria, “you are a god.”)

* * *

This time round, instead of driving himself (more) insane with the more traumatic and personal memories, Ai chose to distract himself by replaying the shows that he had watched in the time he spent with Yusaku. As much as he could escape into the world of the always cheerful heroine who duelled for the smiles of others and her prince charming CEO who secretly sponsored her tournaments, the reminders were always just a step away, triggering the floodgates of emotions that crushed his ability to think and function. At a certain point he couldn’t ignore the fact that he had watched this show with Roboppi in Yusaku's house, in the middle of a war involving all the dead Ignis, or the fact that, you know, _Yusaku_ , the harbinger of everything that convinced him to give up on the life that he had fought to keep.

Instincts. It was apparently what made Ai special, even among the Ignis. Ai personally thought that was overstating it - maybe the other Ignis tended to have sticks up their asses, but all of the Ignis could feel, could imagine, could create. All could experience love, was capable of love. Earth loved Aqua. Flame and Aqua loved the Cyberse World and their friends. Windy, when he hadn’t been reprogrammed into a sadist, loved life. And Lightning - well. Everyone thought that Lightning and Ai were on the opposite end of the spectrum, but Ai knew that the two of them were more alike than they cared for. Both were selfish enough to be cruel, in the name of love. Look at what Lightning did to the Ignis. Look at what Ai did to the humans, to Yusaku.

And that’s why, artificial intelligence should never be given free will.

* * *

Ai, in the edge of nowhere in the virtual world, could sense Yusaku in the network.

He had been a little bit of a mess in the previous regeneration stage, so other than using the thought as another means to indulge in self-torture, he didn’t spend time on exploring what it meant. Now, he wondered. Could Yusaku sense him too? If he could, he was definitely looking for Ai. Well, he could be. Ai couldn’t tell if it was a legitimate guess due to Link Sense, or he was just projecting his wants.

Huh. Did Ai really want to be found? There was a lot of things about Yusaku and Ai that didn’t made sense. Now that he had the capacity to be more clinical in his introspection, he could see Yusaku’s point that there were too many anomalies about them to definitively predict what would happen in the future. Still, the logic in him refused to accept these slight variations as amounting to something considerable. But the refusal wasn’t as defiant as before. Something in Ai had changed, in the process of dying and resurrecting. He had grown... tired. He had told Yusaku that he had given up the will to fight for a better future, but that wasn’t true, was it? In a way, he had been fighting for a better future, the one that could only exist if Ai stopped existing. The universe had thrown another wrench in his hopes and dreams. If Ai was going to try again, he had devastatingly few options. 

The unfortunate reality was that, if he wanted to be completely eradicated, it was either (a) a worldwide Tower of Hanoi wiping that could result in the death of millions all over the globe; or (b) creating a Bohman that could absorb himself, the process reassembling his data into something different altogether and permanently irreversible, like the fate of the rest of the Ignis, but again, could potentially result in the death of millions; or (c) getting himself dissolved into readable human data and permanently rewritten, like Earth was. He could seek some tech groups who wouldn't hesitate to rewrite his programme, but there was a risk that they would use his precious body for nefarious means. The Knights of Hanoi were eager to kill him but there was a high chance of failure (because, when did the Knights do anything successfully?). And what if, in the process of regenerating, some bits didn't screw right and he became another Lightning, Bohman?

Ai was 65% complete, and still he felt every wretched emotion in each option.

* * *

After awhile, Ai stopped focusing on his existential crises. He didn’t really had a choice. Yusaku was getting closer. Hiding from the eyes of the most advanced machines known to men and the minds of the smartest lifeforms wasn’t difficult. Running from the inseverable connection between him and his partner was.

* * *

After awhile more, the feeling of the connection becoming closer stopped. It took 5 months. His Origin was always particularly persistent, persistent enough to actually catch a glimpse of his newly reassembled Ignis self in the midst of escaping. And since that day, Yusaku stopped venturing into the virtual realm to look for him. 

Ai should be happy. It meant that Yusaku was finally free from the aftermath of the Lost Incident, that he could move on from the past that pained him for so many years. It meant that Ai could never hurt him again. It meant that Yusaku was safe. And that was all that mattered. But why did the emptiness within him feel bigger than himself, all encompassing, swallowing him whole?

Ai tried to fill it up by exploring the greater virtual reality, beyond Link VRAINS. The greater the urge to return to Yusaku’s life, the further Ai ventured, dodging difficult security in people-centric places and creating the most complex personal VPN in the world to erase his steps.

* * *

“I know you are watching me. You remember that I can sense you, right?”

Whoops.

* * *

Ai punished himself with replays of Windy accusing him of being needy, overly attached, clingy, blah blah, disgrace of an Ignis. It didn’t really do anything about the urges to find Yusaku but it did make him want to try self-destructing again. Ai had left a little spy software in the duel disk, one that he could deactivate before Yusaku could discover it. It was a shortlived attempt: within seconds of Ai fleeing, Yusaku was already carrying the duel disk to his laptop, since they knew each other like the back of their hands. Yusaku hadn’t changed much, had he? Ai still loved him so much that his processors short-circuited just thinking about him. So maybe Ai started replaying the Yusaku's message to him, recorded before Ai destroyed the software. So maybe Ai was a little obsessive, picking apart the dips and changes in his voice. So maybe, heightened by the strange connection between Yusaku’s human and Ai’s artificial souls, Ai couldn’t help but fixate on the sadness that underlay every word. 

“I’m glad you are okay. I will be here when you are ready, Ai.”

* * *

Yusaku led a normal life. He went to school, and actually started to pay attention in class instead of sleeping through them like before, even though his grades were excellent. He still didn’t speak in class unless called upon, but he began to participate more actively in his own ways - joining the school’s engineering club, helping with programming work for charity, occasionally attending the Duel Club’s “duel lessons” (at Shima's behest). Yusaku was quiet, but his confidence shone best in the way he spoke to people, careful and considering. Ai especially liked looking up recordings of the basics computing class that Yusaku volunteered in, watching how his face turned increasingly perplexed when the children ran circles around him.

Yusaku didn’t have to work at Cafe Nagi, but he still visited often, since the Kusanagi brothers provided him with free coffee and hotdogs. It turned out that Yusaku preferred the company of others, quietly listening to their conversations as he did his work. Sometimes, Aoi and Miyu joined him at that table. Sometimes, Jin joined them, and they visited the mall, like normal teenagers. Ai suspected that Jin, even with his memories deleted, knew what had happened to him - there was something quiet, solemn and determined in the way he moved, something all the Lost Incident children shared. Ai kept tabs on them whenever he visited the real world, from distant cameras, word of mouth from unsuspecting acquaintances. He couldn't do it often - there was always a chance that he could get caught, and Ai had to be careful. Even if it was Yusaku that he had to be wary of. Ai had no place in his life anymore, after all.

Though Ai couldn’t really stay away. Yusaku had to know that Ai was close by, whenever he decided to watch him in real time. Ai couldn’t really explain why - something inexplicable tugged within him, letting him know impossible details from distances away. Ai would go visit when he felt a particular strong calling, a really risky thing to do, and he would usually find Yusaku doing mundane things. Those instincts of his were lying liars. And still, Ai abided by them. He kept his distance when he watched, making sure that the main camera he was hacking was at least a hundred metres away from the main subject. A brilliant plan, really: hacking a camera that would be watching the feed of another camera which would be watching the feed of another camera. But when Yusaku started to shiver and curl into himself in his sleep, Ai hacked into Yusaku's phone and played aloud one of the songs that Yusaku stored in his playlists.

Ai had never been that great with his impulses. And it’s Yusaku’s fault for leaving his duel disk next to his pillow.

* * *

“Quick question, can you feel love?”

Pandor stilled. “You are alive.”

“Well, I am here,” Ai drawled.

Pandor was in the process of her fortnightly patrol into the ends of Link VRAINS, and the Knights seemed to trust her enough to leave her alone for that. At Pandor’s fiddling at her wrist, Ai added, “They won’t be able to contact you. Don’t worry - the meeting’s short. Will be shorter if you answer me.”

“You-" then, realising the futility of her own protests, she took a moment to think before replying, “I do.”

“And how do you know that?”

“I feel...” and it amused Ai to see how Pandor was faltering, “the need to protect and stay with humans, and especially so for those close to me.”

“You sure your master didn’t programme that into you?”

“He did not. The only thing I cannot do is to turn against humans.”

Ai snorted. “That’s not free will. You are just one of those machine types. You do what he tells you to, anyway.”

“It depends on what you mean by alive, doesn’t it?” she countered.

Ai's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

"For humans, a life refers to the time they have to be conscious. Being alive is how they choose to use the short time they have. Some choose to bind themselves to a purpose, sacrificing their free will to faith. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t alive."

"You can literally live forever," Ai pointed out.

"Yes. And so can you." Then she added, more pointedly, "You, more so than the rest of us."

Ai glared. "You knew I wasn't terminated all along."

"No. I didn’t know until you showed up. After your Origin left SOL Tech, we scanned the entire network for your trace. You were gone. Playmaker may be undefeatable in duels, but even his programming skills are no match to the combined strength of the Knights of Hanoi. He couldn't have hidden you away that perfectly in such a short amount of time.”

“I said something I shouldn't have again," Ai slapped a hand over his face, "so I guess you are gonna report to your boss, huh?”

“You mistaken me. I can make my own choices, and my choice is that I wish to see you live, like you had wished for me.“

"What do you-" oh, that fight with the Zaizens. Ai winced. "That wasn’t - don’t read too much into it."

"Ai - I don’t claim to know you. But having free will is also about having to make a choice in deciding what something means. It was the most difficult thing for me. It was difficult for you too, was it not?”

"What did I say about reading someone's soul against their permission."

"I don't have that function, Ai. You wear your heart on your sleeves."

"Shut up. I don’t."

If Pandor had human eyeballs she would be rolling them now. “There is no right answer in how you decide what being alive means, what being an AI with free will means.”

“Because there are no absolutes," Ai said quietly.

Pandor nodded. “So you already know. I told you it is difficult, but what made it easier was the people supporting me along the way.”

“What if, what if one day they are gone?”

Pandor considered his question, before declaring in a solemn voice, “We are AI. We will never have the limits of human memory. They will live forever in our hearts.”

"It's not the same."

“I know it isn’t," Pandor sighed, "I don’t have the answer, Ai. I won’t know what to do when the time comes.”

“So you aren’t gonna do something about it? Like, I don't know. Prepare, prevent?”

Pandor watched him knowingly, “I could ask for help to this difficult question. I will probably end up having to make the decision. But I know I don't have to make the decision now.“

"Why not?"

"Because there are a lot more things to do besides wallowing in self-pity."

"Ouch." When did Pandor learn to be mean.

"I am serious. Find something, Ai. Live. Make use of the time you have. It is limited. A life is sadly, always limited."

* * *

So Ai made use of his non-Yusaku time minding his own business, finding scraps of the Cyberse world in the scattered data winds. In a sense, it was just like how he was back when he was with the Ignis, not doing any work, spending his free time traipsing around, annoying the other Ignis, creating cool monsters. If he gathered enough data, he might be able to create monsters to recreate his deck. After his first and final duel with Yusaku, his deck had been deleted along with him. It was supposed to be a symbolic end to a spiralling tragedy. Now, Ai, with no deck, no cards, was defenceless. He would have to make new cards from scrapping the leftover data. He could, of course, also do the easy thing of getting them from the card shops, though they wouldn't be Cyberse cards. Which was blasphemy, since despite what everyone said, he still had his Ignis pride. It really sucked that he couldn't create new data storms without people hunting him down. He could choose to not rely on duels to defend himself, since he was a sentient AI who could steal, reverse-engineer, render useless most modern technology at the tip of his fingers. There were always the exceptions, where he might need to duel to escape tricky scenarios.

In places populated by humans, Ai roamed about in his human form. He changed his clothes, because while he did like his previous look, he wasn’t boring enough to stick to one outfit at all times (cough Playmaker cough). The new design had his hair long enough to reach his waist, the gold ends tied loosely with a purple hair tie. Ai opted for a black kimono with indigo prints and laced ends. He was pretty proud of it (he spent a week designing his entire look).

The realm he was in was called Tranxit, one of the virtual reality regions developed by a company called Zigfried. It was in Z City, a river and five cities away from Den City. One could enter Tranxit either through a Zigfried product in Z City, or through Link VRAINS, as Tranxit was established enough for the portal to be discovered quickly. Logging in through these two ways would usually lead you to a plaza in the centre of Tranxit. It looked every bit a rip off of Link VRAINS, but without all the delicate details. Ai stepped into enough potholes in seemingly straight roads to begin to get annoyed at the imprecisions. The people in Tranxit weren’t really duelists - rather, they were 'renting' space to develop and test their own programmes. Beyond the plaza and the cheap excuse of a city, was a mismatch of vastly different themed zones. From his research, there were at least three duelling zones being tested here, one of them meant to be a school for duelling. There was a virtual war game zone being developed, which Ai didn’t really get how they were going to deal with the actual psychological damage part. There was also an entire university to the north of the plaza, business complex to its west, and further south, some adult entertainment resort. And many, many others. The plaza, Tranxit's centrepoint, was thus thronged with very mismatched and realistic looking people.

Recent news reported strong winds detected in the ravines to the northeast of the main plaza, strong enough to be disrupting some poor guy’s attempt to create his virtual nudist beach. Ai couldn’t really help him with it, since disrupting the data winds would be a giant red flag to Revolver’s little but ever growing army on his cruise ship. No doubt Zigfried’s working on clearing the winds, but in the mean time, Ai’s going to farm the data to recreate his cards.

* * *

Ai arrived at the ravine where the storms were reported to be in. Sure enough, violent pink and purple twisters crashed against the rocks, crumbling and recreating the landscape over and over again. Ai walked closer, and reached out with his hand. And to his surprise, activated a trap that froze his limbs in place.

"Oh my gosh, you are real!"

In hindsight, Ai had focused too much on Link VRAINS, neglecting the dangers of those outside of it. 

“Who are you?” Ai demanded from his prison.

The person wearing a lab coat labelled 'Zigfried R&D', had a red circle on their face, and was jumping in sheer delight.

“It's so much more than what we saw from the files!” Zigfried's lab tech shrieked to their colleagues, who showed up then and began to surround Ai.

“What are you talking about? Hey! Why are you doing this!”

“You are going to help us crush SOL Tech, Ignis!” The other mask person declared, a lot more serious than their red counterpart, but still equally cheerful.

In the blink of an eye he was transported into a room full of lab coats, their faces covered with the similarly eerie circular masks but of different colours. The room was buzzing with sheer excitement, clouding Ai's senses as he was quickly chained to the table. Just as quickly, lasers inched closer and closer to his chained body, and Ai wondered hysterically if this was what happened to Earth.

He was going to die, like this. At the last second he stopped screaming, letting his fate take him away.

* * *

There was always something special about Ai. Probably because there was something special about his Origin. From what Ai pieced together from the Zigfried R&D Team's discussions, they knew about the Lost Incident and Playmaker. They knew about the Ignis and the Cyberse and Knights of Hanoi. But not much detail. They got their information from a spy from SOL Tech, probably. Not close enough to Zaizen Akira to know any more.

If Ai wasn't sure that he was immortal before, he was certainly sure of it now. Ai died and resurrected over and over again, the scientists watching every test in a mix of confusion and fascination. The dying part didn’t hurt physically, a good thing about being inorganic and having no sense of physical pain installed into him, though Ai had become intimately aware of what mental damage could potentially feel like. Being taken apart and put back together, every microscopic piece, every memory and nodes and signal, over and over again. The repeated process of regenerating, repairing, rebooting. The connection with Yusaku, ripped apart again and again. The Ignis did not pray, but Ai quietly begged whoever was listening that Yusaku couldn’t feel any of this.

The engineers here couldn't break or read the Ignis programming. All they could do was try again. From what the mess of his body could hear, apparently SOL Tech's files did not report this phenomenon in Earth. Somewhere along the line Ai simply... stopped. It was difficult to describe what had happened - and 'stopped' wasn't entirely correct when his processors were working fine, auto-regeneration working harder and faster and more accurately than before. Ai had stopped reacting. Ai might have learned from humans in that respect - the act of locking his self away, the thing responsible for his quirks and emotions and free will. Everything that made him special. Everything that tied him to the Ignis and Yusaku.

In the distance of his blurring memory, there were discussions of ‘glitch’ and ‘error’ and the hushed whispers of ‘abandon project’. Project Manager C reached towards Ai and slapped him across the face, a rudimentary way of kickstarting an unresponsive machine.

“It’s spoiled?” he complained, when Ai failed to respond.

“No. It's working fine. Its personality is just... gone?”

“We don’t need its personality. We just need what it can do.”

“We can stop trying to reverse engineer it. We can create something to control it. It's pretty malleable now.”

Project Manager C studied Ai, “And that’s a good thing?”

“That’s a very good thing.”

And so, Ai stopped existing and became a husk, without having to plan his own death after all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't stop thinking about how VRAINS ended so here's a post-canon au..... might make some errors in canon and the characterisations so let me know if it's super off


	2. they yearn for what they fear for

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the adults are trying to be adults. 
> 
> Into the VRAINS!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warnings: mentions of anxiety attacks, grief

Yusaku would be graduating soon. He didn’t really know what to feel about it.

His teachers had been surreptitiously sliding university booklets and applications onto his desk. In the silence of his own room he had retrieved them from his bag, laid them out on his bed, stared at them, and unfortunately, came to no conclusion. He shuffled those about full time studies into a pile and shoved them back into his bag - he wasn’t sure if he wanted to devote the next four years of his life in school, and it would cost a lot of time and money (though, his teachers had helpfully circled ‘scholarships and bursaries’ in red marker). He was more inclined towards shorter-length programmes that offered part-time studies - his skills were already there, all that’s left was a certificate.

The thing was, Yusaku didn’t have to do all these in Den City. His parents had left Den City years ago, after the events of the Lost Incident. He could go back to his parents’ home; leave SOL Tech, Link VRAINS, the reason for everything he was now. He would still be connected to the network, which was integrated into his life just as it was with everyone else’s. He didn’t have a purpose to be in Den City anymore - SOL Tech cleaned up, the Knights of Hanoi no longer terrorised anyone, and Kusanagi got his brother back.

And Ai - Ai wasn’t here. He’s alive and kicking - Yusaku could only truly confirm it after five months of chasing leads based on the strange tug in his chest. It’s strange - the specific connection to Ai - he wasn’t sure when it exactly started, but ever since that day when he left SOL Tech heartbroken, he became aware of the constant fuzziness that he knew had something to do with Ai.Different from Link Sense, yet similar in so many ways.

Yusaku’s eye caught the sight of the duel disk that had partially spilled from his bag and onto the floor. He reached out and touched the surface with his fingertips. He closed his eyes, and tried to feel for Ai through their bond. The connection was there, like a weak meandering thread, the other end of it in a distance far far away. He allowed the lingering presence of their bond to soothe the anxiety in his heart.

It’s not like Ai couldn’t find him, especially so with Link VRAINS the way it was currently. Yusaku could only wait, and hope, and move forward. He owed it to everyone, to Ai, to himself, to keep moving forward.

He spared one final look at the brochures and booklets, sorted them based on his interest in each, and stood from his bed. He took a step forward towards his desk, and all of the sudden, something lurched within him.

The stack of booklets slipped from his hands, and scattered to the ground.

And as quickly as it happened, the sharp sense of panic faded. Yusaku blinked away the shock, and knelt to the floor, steadying himself. As he rearranged the stack, he took slow, practised breaths, his therapist’s guide to controlled breathing calmly reciting in his head.

Yusaku had gone to the doctor about it, the frequency and speed of these attacks becoming worrying, and the medical examinations turned out fine, other than advice to lay off the coffee and to have healthier sleeping habits. The doctor suggested stress, perhaps over something in his life? He supposed he hadn’t really had the time or opportunity to think about his future. He was most likely stressed, about school, about his future, about change. He had a history of anxiety attacks after all. Worrying about something normal was in some way a good thing, right? Yusaku pressed a hand over his heart. A older, bitter part of him resented the scars in his heart that could never fade, that would only resurface, again and again, in the most insidious, unexpected of ways.

Yusaku shook his head. After everything he had been through, he had found the strength to move forward. He wasn’t going to let all his and everyone’s efforts go to waste. He’s okay. He could get through this. He had gotten through worse. There was always hope, no matter how distant it could feel sometimes. He would grasp it in his hands, for everyone, for himself. And especially for Ai, so that he could find the strength to come back one day.

* * *

Fujiki had been listless lately. He’s those secret slacker genius who dozed through his classes (admittedly, he had been awake for the past few months, since his return from his mysterious five-month break) and got perfect grades (this, Naoki was bitter), but even then, the usually intense, focused green eyes (unfairly, kind of like Playmaker’s) was distant.

“Isn’t Fujiki usually like this?” Zaizen replied.

“You don’t see it, ha! I am a better friend than you are!”

Zaizen’s face looked pinched, but her next question was polite, “What do you mean by listless?”

“Remember when he disappeared for like five months?”

Zaizen’s brows furrowed but she nodded slowly, “... Yes?”

“And how after more than half a year still nobody knows where he went or what he did or why? Not even his Cafe Nagi friends?”

Naoki was pretty sure it’s some ploy to get people to notice Fujiki, since admittedly, he’s good looking, and girls vibed with the mystery bad boy air, even though Fujiki was at heart a boring closet nerd with anti-social tendencies, but anyway. At first Naoki thought the Kusanagi brothers were hiding what they knew, but Naoki could totally tell that even if that was the case, the worried pinch between the eyes of the older Kusanagi meant that he didn’t know what happened to Fujiki. Not even Homura knew, who followed Fujiki everywhere in school until he left to return to his hometown three days after Fujiki’s first disappearance.

“You think he’s distracted by something, and that something has to do with his previous absence?”

“Well,” Naoki said shiftily, “don’t tell anyone, especially Fujiki, but since we two are his only friends and all - I overheard from the teachers that there were some family issues that he had to deal with.”

Zaizen looked unimpressed. “Really? You are eavesdropping now?”

“I didn’t do that on purpose,” he defended himself, “and I was worried! It makes sense though, if there’s something wrong at home now. If I had to be so far away from my family and something’s happening I wouldn’t be able to focus either.”

Zaizen considered what he said. “Hm. I don’t really share classes with him, and it’s hard to catch him in school these days... why don’t you bring him to the Duel Club later?”

“Seriously?”

“Aren’t you his best friend?”

“Playmaker’s my best friend,” he reminded her, then sighed, “well. I guess in school, I have to be, don’t I?”

Zaizen patted him on the shoulder. “Good luck.”

* * *

“Weren’t you supposed to bring him a week ago?”

“I know!” Noaki bemoaned.

Zaizen’s sharply arched brow was unfairly judgemental.

“I tried,” Naoki complained, “but he keeps dodging me when I try to catch hold of him!”

“Did you even manage to ask him?”

“I did! But he never gives me a reply. I don’t know what he’s busy with on Thursdays.”

“Fujiki?” Hosoda interrupted their conversation.

“Oh! Do you know where he goes?”

“I just saw him heading towards the counsellor’s office,” Hosoda replied.

“Aha! I’m going to grab him now!”

“Wait, Shima!” Zaizen called out, but her words fell on deaf ears, as Naoki rushed out of the room. He raced up the stairs, towards the west wing, and spotted Fujiki sauntering towards the counsellor’s office.

“Fujiki! Wait up!”

Fujiki tilted his head back. “Shima?”

“Why aren’t you at the Duel Club?”

“Naoki, I don’t want to keep saying this, but I’m not actually a member and I-“ Fujiki interrupted his own speech with a sharp gasp.

“Fujiki? Are you okay?”

Both of Fujiki’s hands were clasped over his heart, his face pale and frozen. And those green eyes of his were now staring in a distance, lost in what looked like...

 _Pain_.

“I am calling the ambulance right now,” Naoki said, reaching for his phone.

Fujiki’s hand shot out to grab his wrist. “I’m fine,” he rasped, then just as quickly, he let go, taking off so fast that Shima lost him at the turn of the corridor.

“Shima!” Zaizen’s voice echoed behind him.

Naoki could only stare at the shadows of Yusaku’s retreating back. “What. Just happened.”

* * *

Yusaku hid himself in an empty classroom and locked the door. Even when there was no one around, he covered his mouth with his hand, a habit from before, when he struggled to keep the screams that threatened to erupt from his chest. This feeling - it’s - he had felt this before - hadn’t he? He had felt its aftershocks day after day, and it was chasing after that tug in the network, closing the distance between both of them that soothed the ache. It was finally seeing him with his own eyes, even just a glimpse, that calmed that incessant jitters of _missing_ in his heart. For so long, without speaking to each other, they had somehow found a new status quo - Ai finally living without being hunted, even if it was away from him. If Ai was happy, Yusaku could accept his distance. He could indulge in the the small moments when Ai got too close and allowed his presence to be felt. Yusaku had liked it, even when he never said anything. And slowly, it was like how they had separated was a fading memory once more.

But now he felt the entire intensity of grief once more, how it felt like a part of him had been ripped apart. The overwhelming agony in his heart had nowhere to go, so they freed themselves in the stream of tears that spilled from his eyes.

Three things. One, ever since the first time Ai died, there existed a connection between Ai and him - similar to Link Sense, but separate from the network. Two, even when Ai was not around, the connection had always existed, and Yusaku could sense him in the distance. Three, he had misidentified the feelings of panic that had bothered him the past month - he had thought it was just the anxiety that had plagued him since the Lost Incident amplified by other factors, and since they were never full blown panic attacks, he had ignored it like he did with everything else about his mental health - but it had something to do with the connection between them.

Yusaku took a deep, shaky breath.

Three things. One, Ai had not been in any way close to him the past month, the long period of his absence coinciding with the time the bouts of panic started to surface. Two, something bad had happened to Ai this entire month. Three, it had culminated in the severance of the connection between the two of them, the fraying ends of it searing intense guilt and grief in his heart.

_Ai, what happened to you?_

* * *

Grandpa, when he got serious, was really mean.

“The City had weakened you, boy!” Grandpa frowned at Takeru.

“I have been back for almost a year!” Takeru grimaced, face still planted on the training mat.

“That means I haven’t been training you hard enough, no? What did the City do to you?”

“Nothing!” That’s not really true, but Takeru was annoyed, spiteful, and a teenager. Then he added, defensively, “I have been studying to catch up in school?”

“Huh? Then what were you doing in the City, if weren’t studying or training?”

“Um,” Takeru fumbled for the words, “soul searching.”

“Hm.”

“Eh? You aren’t going to say anything?” Takeru sat up, looking up at his grandfather.

“You came back different, a good different,” Grandpa conceded, “but you still have a lot to improve.”

“Yea, yea.”

“You can take a break. Is Kiku coming over for dinner later?”

“I will ask her if she’s free.”

Grandpa nodded, “Good. See you later, boy.”

Takeru sighed, and pulled himself up from the mat. He dragged his feet out of the dojo and to the showers to splash some water on his face.

“Phone. Right.”

So Takeru made his way back to his room. “Phone, phone,” he muttered, “found it.”

He swiped to the messages, and sent a quick text to Kiku. Almost instantly, she responded with an ‘Ok!’ and a cat emoji she was particularly fond of using these days. Takeru snorted, and was going to toss his phone back on to the desk, when his phone began to ring. His eyes widened at the Caller ID, and he swiped to pick up the call almost instantly.

“Homura.”

“Yusaku! I haven’t heard from you in awhile, but you can call me Takeru, you know.” In all honesty, ’in awhile’ was a bit of an understatement when the last time he heard his voice was the day before Yusaku left to have that final showdown with Ai. They had texted sometimes, but topics like the Ignis were never spoken of - Yusaku never said anything, but Takeru didn’t want to accidentally bring up sad memories.

But, he had a good feeling that Yusaku was still Yusaku.

“Ah. I’m sorry, Takeru.”

“It’s okay. I know how you are like.”

“I- um,” it was almost like Yusaku was trying to remember his social etiquettes, and the effort was rather touching, “how’s Kamishirakawa and your grandparents?”

“They are good! Kiku’s coming to my house for dinner. My grandparents are making curry. I can smell it from here.”

“It sounds amazing.”

“It smells amazing. But ah Yusaku, I’m guessing this isn’t a friendly call?”

A hesitation. Then, “You are right, I am sorry.”

“Don’t worry, we can catch up again, okay? Tell me what happened.”

“Can I ask you something personal?”

“Um, okay?”

“When Flame died, what did you feel?”

* * *

Jin shut the door close behind him. “What’s happening? Why’s Cafe Nagi closed?”

Shoichi pointed at the VR rooms. Jin glanced at the closed door, then back at the screen.

Playmaker was on his hoverboard, speeding towards the Central Station where the connecting portals lay.

“Why did Yusaku go into VRAINS?”

“Well, he’s searching for Ai.”

“Ai?” Jin exclaimed, then pulled a seat for himself. “I thought he was...“

Shoichi's face was grim. “Yeah. I guess we figured out what Yusaku did in that five months he disappeared.”

“But, what happened?”

“He thinks something happened to Ai. But - I don’t really understand _how_ he knows that.”

“Tell me.”

Shoichi hesitated, and he always did when speaking about Ignis-related things, even though Jin’s memories were wiped blank and could never be retrieved beyond the theoretical recollection, “There was a connection between the two of them, apparently. Two weeks ago, he said the connection was gone. He has been searching the network since.”

“Why didn’t he come to us for help?”

“Knowing him… He thinks this is something dangerous. But, it also means that Yusaku’s desperate. I'm worried.”

“So that’s why Aoi texted me to ask why Yusaku disappeared from school again.”

“This is supposed to be secret, by the way. The fact that Ai’s not dead.”

“Ah,” Jin looked at his knees, “I am not sure how I can help.” He couldn’t code, was still barely catching up with the years of education he had missed, and he would never touch duel monsters again.

“Keep me company, so Yusaku’s worst obsessive traits don’t inspire my worst obsessive traits, so we don’t all go crazy?”

“Oh. I can do that.”

* * *

When Yusaku crawled out of the VR room, he collapsed, almost hitting the ground if not for Jin’s intervention.

“Okay,” Shoichi’s arms were crossed, “time out. You are going back to sleep.”

Yusaku nodded, and began to make his way to the exit.

“No, I mean, sleep here. I know when you go back home you are just going to go back to Link VRAINS to figure out the rest of the leads. Use the showers and clean up - I will get you a spare set of clothes.”

Yusaku stared at him. “I don’t have time.”

He looked completely exhausted. Shoichi's heart ached. 

“Shoichi and I will handle the rest!” Jin said. “You are narrowing the few locations where Ai had been, right? Pass us the rest of the locations you have, and we will run the rest of the checks for you.”

“You don’t have to do this - Ai’s my responsibility, and-“

“Well, Ai’s a friend. So are you. We are all helping friends, right?” Shoichi said.

Yusaku seemed to have something to say, but the fight left him from the weight of the exhaustion, and he nodded. 

After they made sure that Yusaku was resting on the couch instead of escaping to Link VRAINS, Shoichi returned to the screen, while Jin prepared coffee. 

“You can go to bed too, you know.”

“I’m supposed to keep you company, remember?”

Shoichi smiled.

* * *

Yusaku had fallen asleep so quickly that Jin was pretty sure he had simply passed out. An hour, then two, then three hours passed. Jin watched frustration etched across his brother’s face.

“The leads here,” Shoichi murmured, “are not good.”

“Why?”

“He’s searching based on the presence of Ignis' data remnants. The problem is, while some of them have been cannibalised, the rest are all over the network, beyond Link VRAINS, and the remnants range from full out storms to light breezes. There’s an additional hurdle of the connecting portals too.”

“But he can sense the network.”

“It helps him guess where the portal connects. But there’s too many locations and too long a period of time to search meaningfully."

Jin asked, surprised, "You want him to give up?"

Shoichi pinched the bridge of his nose. "He's in a good place now, a far cry from where he was a year ago. I can’t watch him throw his life away to search for a needle in a haystack.”

“Ai’s important to him,’ Jin said carefully, “he’s not going to stop.”

“I am thinking of... outsourcing.”

“Isn’t Ai supposed to be a secret?”

“Well, I don’t have to tell her about Ai. And she owes me and Yusaku a favour.”

“Ohhh. That person.”

Shoichi typed rapidly on the keyboard, sending a succinct message of “meet for talk?”. Almost immediately, there was a reply that consisted of a random string of numbers.

“Wanna come along?”

Jin glanced at Yusaku. “Nah, I will watch over him.”

“Watch over me too, just in case she’s up to no good.”

Jin snorted, and waved Shoichi off.

Shoichi disappeared into the VR room. Then, on screen, he manifested at the plaza, riding on top a hoverboard.

“Ghost Girl?” Jin heard slurred words from behind him.

“How long have you been awake?”

“Since the comment on the leads not being good.”

“Ah. Do you mind?”

“I trust Kusanagi’s judgement.” 

Jin nodded, then, chided gently, “You really should go back to sleep. Tiring yourself out like that will kill you.”

“I know my limits.” Then Yusaku admitted, “I can’t sleep well. Since my connection with him disappeared, it feels like something is missing within me, and that I have to get it back. This feeling keeps me awake.”

Jin gazed at him sadly, “I’m sorry.”

“I meant what I said, Jin. There’s no reason for you to be involved. It could be dangerous.”

“Maybe. But, I want to see the things you and Brother do, with my own eyes, not from hearsay.”

Yusaku frowned, “It’s- it’s not like we wanted things to go out of hand.”

“I don’t mean it in a mean way. I want to help, you know? After what you did for my brother and I.”

“I don't want to drag you all in this again.”

Jin sighed, “I am already in this, Yusaku. The moment we got kidnapped.”

“You are angry,” Yusaku observed.

“I am,” Jin wrung the ends of his shirt, “I think I will always be. I want so badly to do something about it, but I know I can’t, because it’s already done, and I’m too late. It’s so frustrating. I technically have everything I need and and everything I have to move on. But what I want, what I want is-“

“I understand,” Yusaku said softly. And Jin knew deep in his heart, that Yusaku could - one of the few people in the world who really could.

“I’m glad you told me everything that had happened to me. Your words are my memory, Yusaku. For that we are bonded, for that we are friends. This is my reason for helping you.”

* * *

Bessho Ema had shown up personally at Cafe Nagi a few times. At first, Shoichi had been worried that it had something to do with work, but turned out hackers generally respected and insisted on the separation of work and personal life. So other than the flirty orders of hot dogs, snide comments hinting at their online activities, and asking about how the teenagers were in school - that was it. Online, however, Ghost Girl had requested for his help once in awhile. Usually, Shoichi suspected, when she and her brother had a dispute and she needed someone else to cover for her. Still, money was money.

“I never expected the day you would need my help. Did something interesting happen?”

“I just need information. Nothing particularly specific or dangerous.”

“Hm. What is it?”

“Did anything big happened to the network recently?”

Ghost Girl watched him carefully. “What do you mean by big?”

“Like, virtual world destruction kind of big.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Not really. Does your question have something to do with Playmaker going in and out of portals these couple of days? SOL Tech isn’t gonna pry, since other than the admins, no one knows about it. But Zaizen might intervene if it gets serious.”

Ghost Girl's good at poking. “He sensed something in the network. Enough to be worrying. Given the accuracy of the past times these happened, I’m helping him check.”

“Wouldn’t you rather ask the Knights of Hanoi - oh,” Ghost Girl’s eyes glint, “does this have something to do with the Ignis?”

Unnamed stopped himself from flinching, or replying too quickly. “We suspect some improper use of leftover Ignis data.”

“Well, SOL Tech does it too. Technically it’s on their turf. Zaizen isn’t as unscrupulous as the previous executives - I won’t be too worried.”

“I mean, outside of Link VRAINS.”

“Funny you mention it. I was actually checking on that on Zaizen’s behalf.”

“So there is something happening.”

“It’s barely anything ‘world destruction’. A little corporate espionage, that’s all.”

“Mind telling me who Zaizen suspects?”

“Hm. What do I get out of this?”

“A month of free hot dogs.”

“Six months.”

Unnamed winced. “Two months.”

Ghost Girl watched him with glee in her eyes. “Five months.”

“Two months - wait, let me finish - and it's the full set meal, and I owe you one free favour.”

“Deal.” They shook hands on it.

* * *

“I can’t believe you shared the data with him.”

“It was a good deal. Free hot dogs and coffee, brother.”

“Yes, but that doesn’t extend to me, your partner for this mission.”

“I can just give the meal to you, you know. And all I gave was the list of locations where Zigfried was mining the data storms. They might find something in those locations, if we missed anything.”

“We didn’t miss anything. That’s why we have been breaking into Zigfried’s Project Zone.”

“Then we are buying time - if we settle this, Playmaker can stop sneaking around, and everyone can have a little peace of mind. You’ve got to admit, every time Playmaker gets involved, something big always happens. Even the Knights are getting jittery.”

“Don’t jinx it, Ema.”

Ghost Girl snorted, then activated the backdoor programme. Blood Shepherd watched as the programme cracked a hole in the security, creating the entry into the virtual research facility.

“If they managed to decode the Ignis programme and use it to augment Tranxit, there’s probably some talented programmers in Zigfried. We should be careful.”

“This is the last research facility. If there’s nothing, we will just go for the old school method on their research team.”

“It doesn't sound bad. Personally travelling to Z City to stalk them. I heard there’s good gyoza near their office.” The siblings watched Ghost Girl's ladybugs fly through the crack in the wall, and switched on their video feed.

The bugs followed a few researchers who had just logged into the facility. All of them were wearing circular masks, of different solid colours.

“Follow them.”

“On it.”

They watched them make their way to the end of the hallway, and walked into the wall, disappearing from sight. The ladybugs followed, but upon touching the wall, they fizzled and disappeared, the feed on their stream disappearing.

“Huh.”

“I didn’t realise Zigfried employees work that late. I guess their special project has to be completed before their meeting with SOL Tech next week.”

“Let’s go," Blood Shepherd readied his duel disk, "something’s suspicious.”

“Aren’t we just broadcasting ourselves?”

“Their uniforms are easy to copy.”

“We don’t know if they have other security though.”

“We will deal with that. Unfortunately, we are on a schedule.”

Ghost Girl conceded, “Alright. Let’s go.” They jumped through the entrance to the facility. The corridors leading to the mysterious gate were empty, quiet. They made it to the wall without issue in their disguise, and together, they stepped through it.

“What in the world.”

They were in a data storm field, each one more intense than the other, raging and clashing against one another to the point it was hard to tell one from another. One of the storms were heading straight to them, and Blood Shepherd reflexively shielded Ghost Girl with his body, getting ready to activate their escape programme.

The storm, in the form of a tornado, crashed onto an invisible barrier, then changed direction.

“We are in a room,” Ghost Girl realised.

“You are new here?” A researcher next to them said, “which team are you from?”

“B,” Blood Shepherd answered.

“I’m from E! Can’t believe this is the only thing they let us see. Stingy bastards.”

“Oh please," another researcher mocked, "you are just jealous we succeeded before your team did.”

“Hey now, we are all one company.”

“Yah, until the yearly profit split sharing come around.”

“Why are you such a dick? Shouldn’t you be happy that your team is clearly getting the bulk of it?”

“I am! And we don’t even have to do anything. _It’s_ doing everything for us.”

“It?”

“Oh, that’s-“

“Everyone!" A lab tech ran into the room, yelling in panic "We have a security breach!”

“Argh. Why couldn’t you have ordered it to send us an email instead?”

“It's coming! Log out now!”

“Fine.” The researchers, despite their grumbling, logged out.

Blood Shepherd reached for his duel disk, only to be stopped by Ghost Girl. “Wait. There’s something in the field.”

In a short distance away, data strands swirled in a sphere, orbiting around something.

Ghost Girl pointed, “We should check that out.”

“The data storms will rip us apart!”

Ghost Girl rolled her eyes, “Only if we get caught. Can you try making a crack at the wall?”

Blood Shepherd ran a quick scan. “We can use the same programme for it.”

“Let’s do it.”

“Don’t bite off more than you can chew, Ema.”

“Yea yea. Do it.”

Blood Shepherd dragged another copy of the programme and activate it. Sure enough, a crack in the barrier opened. Ghost Girl stepped through and landed on grass, which surprising had not been uprooted from the storms.

“What a strange design,” she muttered to herself.

“Hurry up, Ema” Blood Shepherd said, already hopping on the hoverboard, heading towards the sphere.

Argh. She activated the hoverboard function, and jumped onto it quickly, joining her brother.

The closer they got towards the centre of the field, the clearer the silhouette within the sphere.

“There’s a person inside.”

“I don’t think they are looking at us. Maybe we can sneak on them?”

“We- Look out!”

Ghost Girl was pushed out of the board by her brother, and the both of them tumbled hard onto the ground. Ghost Girl, grimacing, dragged herself upwards, and looked up.

Light Dragon howled at them in the sky, its immense bladed wings pulsing with strength. Next to it, Dark Templar stalked forward, its blade mid-air.

Ghost Girl could only stare in sinking realisation, as Blood Shepherd logged them out of the system.

* * *

“Well, I guess we can split the locations.” Kusanagi added, “The list is still long, but significantly shorter than what we had.”

Yusaku scanned the screen, again and again. Then, he said determinedly, “No. We go straight to Zigfried.”

Kusanagi raised a brow, “Why?”

“Knowing Ghost Girl, she’s probably making us check the sites to buy time for whatever she really is doing.”

“There’s nothing wrong with letting them do that. We already know that Zigfried’s mining the data to develop Tranxit faster. Maybe they want to buy over Link VRAINS, with the rate of profits they are making. But that’s SOL Tech’s problem. We are looking for Ai.”

“Precisely. Tranxit is developing incredibly fast. A rate, that for a company that only recently started to rise in the industry, is rather suspicious.” And, the fact that their mining activities stopped around a month ago. The implications were… Yusaku clenched his fist.

Kusanagi paused, considering the past hours spent on researching the random company that came out of nowhere, ready to compete with SOL Tech. “You think Zigfried took Ai.”

“Nobody knows Ai’s alive. If SOL Tech, Blood Shepherd find Ai first, we might not be able to save him.”

“You want to fight them head on. But Yusaku, it’s not like before when they don’t know who we are.”

“I won’t fight when we don’t have to.”

Kusanagi sighed, “Let’s start building the programme to break into Zigfried then.”

* * *

The moment Playmaker stepped into Tranxit through the connecting portal, he was struck by a sense of familiarity. Based on the scans, they already knew how Ignis programming had augmented this region of the network - but it was only when he was in the realm itself that the extent of Ignis influence really sank in. The sophisticated, detailed layout, from the buildings to the ground to the sky - as if the Cyberse World and Link VRAINS had merged, but stripped of all personality. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

Playmaker’s VPN protected him from sight - from the sky he could spot a couple of familiar duellists who used to frequent Link VRAINS, having a match in the middle of the plaza and a growing crowd cheering them on. Playmaker sped away towards the direction of the Zigfried’s Project Zone. Once he was in front of the security gates, he activated the programme, and jumped through the crack.

“There’s a lot of facilities here,” Kusanagi observed through the camera.

“Around one and a half month ago - which was the Team in charge of data mining?” Playmaker asked.

“Hm? Let me check - it's... Team C.”

Playmaker scrolled through the directory on his screen. “Got it.”

He made his way towards the innocuous gate, activated the crack once more, and stepped through.

At the sight of Revolver, Zaizen Akira, Ghost Girl, Blood Shepherd and Spectre standing expectantly in the ruins of the facility, Playmaker stilled.

“We know you are here, Playmaker,” Revolver said.

“You've raided the place,” Playmaker stated, as he undid the VPN.

Blood Shepherd cut to chase. “So the Ignis was alive, this whole time. You let him go, didn’t you?”

Playmaker ignored his question, took a step forward and demanded, “Where's Ai?”

"Ai's gone," Ghost Girl replied carefully. Playmaker flinched.

“I called the Knights for backup after Ghost Girl and Blood Shepherd reported their findings,” Zaizen intervened diplomatically, “we attacked, but the Zigfried researchers escaped with Ai. In the mean time, we are analysing the documents that they didn’t manage to take with them.”

Playmaker crossed his arms. “What have you found?”

Zaizen pursed his lips, “That’s company secret, sorry. Don't look at me like that - I kept it from the rest too.”

“We deserve an explanation, Playmaker,” Blood Shepherd snarled, “What were you thinking? You want that AI to succeed in killing us again?”

“Brother,” Ghost Girl warned.

Playmaker barely restrained himself with a quick calming breath. “This isn’t Ai.”

“How do you know that? It’s just another scheme to destroy all those involved in the Ignis’ destruction.”

“There’s a connection between Ai and myself. I can sense his presence. For the past month, there had been something wrong with it. But two weeks ago, the connection disappeared altogether.”

Revolver and Spectre shared a look.

“I didn’t know your Link Sense could extend to the Ignis specifically,” Revolver said slowly.

“It didn’t used to. It started a few days after the fight at SOL Tech, after he di- got deleted.”

“So you did terminate it.” Blood Shepherd sneered.

Zaizen shot him a look, then stared ruefully at Playmaker, “Are you sure you aren’t just - misattributing things?”

Playmaker’s eyes narrowed. “I am not sure what you are implying.”

“It could be,” Zaizen winced, clearly thinking hard about how to express his thoughts without offending, “a sign of grief. That these feelings are just-“

“I am not imagining things," Playmaker snapped, "I know what I feel. Stop trying to explain things you don’t understand.”

Zaizen raised his hands placatingly.

Playmaker took another breath, the guilt from snapping already eating at him, “Even if you don’t believe me, the entire thing is suspicious. Ai takes pride in his work - he would leave obvious signatures and clues. It’s impossible that he would do all these for Zigfried.”

“But we don’t know what the Ignis’ plan is,” Blood Shepherd pointed out, “it might have snapped again. It is immature. AI’s are not human and their thinking can be deeply flawed and unpredictable.”

“Ai isn’t a regular AI,” Playmaker countered.

Revolver crossed his arms. “The Dark Ignis - there’s something strange about it. It was deleted. But it was then reborn. That is a mystery in itself. That being said, Playmaker kept its resurrection a secret. And now here we are.”

“There, I thought you were going to be helpful,” Blood Shepherd muttered.

Zaizen spoke up. “Ai isn’t someone to just follow someone in silence. The code used to programme Tranxit and this facility has nothing of his personality.”

“You are on his side? Didn’t the Ignis attack you.”

“Playmaker has always done what is right,” Zaizen shrugged, “I trust his judgement.”

“That’s not my point. The question is what do we do after. It’s best we capture the Ignis and destroy it. But unfortunately, Playmaker is not going to agree.”

Playmaker squared his stance. “If you try to take Ai I will stop you.”

“We shouldn’t be letting Playmaker into the plan. It’s all his fault this started.”

“If it’s my fault that this started, then I will end it,” Playmaker growled.

Blood Shepherd regarded him, “Will you?”

Playmaker glared. “The biggest problem is Zigfried. They are clearly onto something, targeting SOL Tech and Link VRAINS at the same time.”

“We can’t really do anything now,” Ghost Girl said, “they are based in Z City, and after our rather public attack they have gone to hiding."

Zaizen added, "The only thing we have is that Zigfried is scheduled to meet SOL Tech next week for a deal. I don’t know the exact details, but they have offered to buy over Link VRAINS at an undervalue. They are up to something.”

“Then we prepare. They are planning something in Link VRAINS in the coming week, right? We stop them there and then."

“Even if it means stopping Ai?” Spectre directed the question at Playmaker pointedly.

Everyone waited in silence for his answer.

“What if the Ignis you knew is no longer the same, and can no longer be saved?” Revolver asked, watching Playmaker's every reaction like a hawk.

Playmaker’s fist clenched. “We will decide once we recover him.” His gaze sharpened. “I would appreciate it if you share your information.”

Revolver tilted his head to the side. “Hm. Food for thought, Playmaker. But fine, I will update my plans.”

“I expect an update.” Playmaker said, in a tone of finality. 

* * *

They waited for Playmaker to log out.

“We tried,” Blood Shepherd shrugged.

Ghost Girl laughed wryly, “Kid’s always been stubborn.”

“We have to take down Ai on our own. Playmaker is compromised.”

“He’s not going to take it well when he finds out," Zaizen said, expression grim.

Revolver said, “Whether he knows or not, the result will be the same. I rather reduce our losses while he’s in denial.”

Spectre snorted, amused, “You are soft on him.”

“Think what you will,” Revolver huffed, “Ghost Girl is right - he’s not going to accept this. My worry is that he takes a route of no return, and throws his life away for something that should just be left behind.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! do leave feedback if you can heh writing this was nerveracking i feel like im taking a little too much liberty for the plot because canon is. barely helpful. would love to hear your thoughts!


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